18 Dating Trends That Made 2017 One Of The Worst Years To Look For Love

The idea of “dating trends” can make people roll their eyes… until this stuff happens to you. Then, you want to read all about it. Here’s a roundup of all the gross dating trends that have surfaced in 2017. Many aren’t new phenomenon, they’ve just been given names.

  1. Ghosting You’re seeing someone and you think all is going well… until they suddenly vanish off of the planet. They’ve stopped texting and they’ve disappeared. You’re left wondering what the heck happened and maybe even feeling a bit heartbroken. You never get an explanation for where they went. Great.
  2. Zombieing Falling on the heels of ghosting, this happens when someone disappears out of thin air (or slow fades) then comes back from the dead as if nothing happened at all. There’s the idea that because you never cut ties, it’s cool for them just to come back.
  3. Breadcrumbing Worse than ghosting, breadcrumbing is when someone wants to be out of a relationship, but they don’t have the guts to just end it. Instead, they do a slow fade, leaving “crumbs” like text messages, phone calls, and maybe even short hangout sessions. This dating trend is the coward’s way out of a relationship.
  4. Benching This is done by a person who has a bunch of people on their roster (pardon the sport’s references), yet only has some people in play and the rest on the bench. Those on the bench are being texted and paid some attention to, but aren’t being taken out or taken seriously. In other words, they’re kept on the bench instead of being brought into play.
  5. Cushioning Someone’s with a partner, yet they’re already on the lookout for potential other partners. It’s like they’re getting ready for a breakup by “cushioning” their fall with other people. It’s arguably a form of emotional cheating and is totally unfair to all parties involved.
  6. Love Bombing Your partner comes out of nowhere and sweeps you off of your feet. Everything moves very quickly, making you feel as if you just struck gold in the love department. Then, just as quickly as the love bomber arrives, they decide that they feel nothing for you and leave. It’s heartbreaking.
  7. Catch and Release You’re starting to see someone and you decide that you’re really interested in them. You get excited and it seems you two are growing closer. Then, suddenly the other person is very busy. They stop calling or texting. This is a tactic used by people who need attention and validation, yet are completely emotionally unavailable. They shut down at the first sign of intimacy.
  8. Slow Fade Things are starting to get more serious in a relationship, then all of a sudden the other person starts to slowly back away. Maybe they get scared, maybe they realize the relationship isn’t for them. Either way, they take the coward’s way out instead of being honest about their feelings. This one is much like breadcrumbing.
  9. Drafting Season Drafting season is leading up to cuffing season, where you settle down in a sense. It’s what it sounds like—they’re recruiting a person. In many cases, the person doing the drafting is looking for a partner to settle down with, but in other cases, they’re just looking for a temporary boo.
  10. Cuffing Once drafting season is over, ideally, you’ve found someone to shackle up with. This is what we refer to as “cuffing” and it often happens in the cold winter months. It’s like being “cuffed” to someone to cuddle up and avoid the cold. Except, lots of sex is involved.
  11. Draking Obviously named after the revered Drake, this trend is about being whiney about love while sounding nothing at all like Drake. This may come in the form of a friend who always posts sad song lyrics as her Instagram captions. It’s not cute, edgy, or hip, it’s just sad.
  12. Throwback Dating Rejecting the latest trends and ways of doing things, this form of dating likes to set aside the cell phones and reject online dating. They think that it’s better to go back to the way that things used to be, so they do their best to do that.
  13. Stashing You’ve gotten super close to the person that you’re dating. Maybe you’ve been dating for months now and you two spend a lot of time together. The problem is that you haven’t met anyone important in their life like friends or family. It’s like the person is “stashing” you away from them. This makes people in their life think they’re single, which sucks.
  14. Submarining Much like a submarine disappears under the water and reappears again, a person does this as if they’ve never gone anywhere at all. It’s almost like being ghosted, except the person shows up again acting like nothing happened.
  15. Stealthing Probably the worst “trend” there was, this is when a guy removes the condom during sex without asking his partner. It’s a horrific thing to happen and definitely counts as sexual assault.
  16. Phubbing This is a mixture of the words “phone” and “snubbing,” it means that you aren’t paying much attention to your partner because you’re too caught up in what’s going on with your phone. It may look like checking your phone when your partner’s talking to you or getting easily lost in your phone for minutes or hours at a time.
  17. Haunting A haunting occurs when someone who’s no longer in your life be it from ghosting or some other form of splitting up, still finds a way to “haunt” you. Perhaps they throw the occasional like your way or send you a snapchat. Like a ghost from the past, they come back to spook.
  18. Roaching You’re dating someone you’re pretty crazy about and you’ve both insinuated that you’re just dating one another. Maybe you’ve even flat out said you’re exclusive. Then, you find out that you were being made to believe this, but your lover really has been seeing other people all along. The idea is that one roach means a whole bunch of others in the closet.
Ginelle has been writing professionally for more than six years and has a bachelor’s degree in digital marketing & design. Her writing has appeared on Birdie, Thought Catalog, Tiny Buddha and more. You can follow her on Instagram @ginelletesta, via her Facebook page, or through her website at ginelletesta.com.
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